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How multicultural is your area?

(42 Posts)
skratta Fri 22-Mar-13 16:41:13

My area is very multicultural, which is hardly surprising. We live in a commuter zone to New York (yes we live in the USA!) and many people have come here to work in the city, as have our family. It is of a similar level as London or higher even, when I lived there (not too long ago!) I like it that way.

Off the top of my head, I can list these countries of origin for children or their parents (which I know of, a lot of them are fully fledge citizens or on a long term visa thing but equally many have moved here with their child or just before)
Morocco
Tajikistan
Sri Lanka (nine people)
India (seven people)
Czech Republic
Pakistan (eleven people)
Saudi Arabia
France
Nigeria (two people)
Zimbabwe
Burundi
Papua New Guinea
Bangladesh (nine people)
Ireland
Spain (two people)
Indonesia (five people)
Burkina Faso
Somalia
UK (one person only)
Sweden (my lot!)
Mexico (eighteen people)
Croatia
Puerto Rico
China (three people)
Panama
Eritrea
Canada (four)
And the rest are USA either for generations or, their grandparents or before that lived here. Obviously those are the only ones I know and I have four children and this is a mix of their friends. I come from a very un diverse area with mainly people who lived in Sweden for generations, and when I moved as an adult to Stockholm (then eight months in UK and finally USA!) it was a lot more diverse.

I have four children, and this is a list of those I know via parents too and who I know about from their origins, it's something we discuss and when we first came here and my children started making friends we kind of found out because I guess it's an easy starting point. 'Hi, I'm Lilja...I just came over from Sweden...' Then someone else says 'my name's Shahithiya! I came over from Canada like only a month ago! It's so weird being new isnt it!' Etc; and oddly enough it followed similar lines. When you move and introduce yourself it kind of becomes a starting point, as if it validates you, and then you kind of know them more etc; and make friends...

So, how diverse is your area? Each year we have a day at the school where everybody goes in wearing something of their culture or whatever and makes flags put in e hall of their origins. If more than one origin (say one parent from one place, other from another) then there's loads! I spotted a Faeroese flag and I saw one other Sweden flags and loads of American ones (obviously).

chickensaladagain Fri 22-Mar-13 16:49:14

Not diverse at all -you can count the number of not white children on one hand aty dcs large primary school which makes me sad as I grew up in Manchester and I really miss the diversity

MummyPig24 Fri 22-Mar-13 16:59:28

Not diverse at all. Fairly small village, you honestly never see anyone who isn't white. There is a Thai lady who lives on my road but she is the only woman I can think of! There are a few polish and hungarian people. One mile down the road and it is much more multicultural.

KitCat26 Fri 22-Mar-13 17:00:30

Well, compared to where I grew up (large town, commuter belt) not very diverse.

I now live in a village in Suffolk. But, having said that, there Indian and Nigerian nuns and American, Italian, Irish and South African families. So not too bad given the area! And I'm of Anglo Indian descent.

Umleila Fri 22-Mar-13 17:28:14

I used to live in Abu Dhabi (Emirates) and the diversity was brilliant! We had a party and of 40 guests there were 35 different nationalities. I was the only Brit in my office of about 50 people. Fascinating. Now I live in W Dorset and it's not v multicultural at all. A shame, I miss the cultural kaleidoscope of Abu Dhabi and London.

StuffezLaBouche Fri 22-Mar-13 17:34:40

It's weird here. As a small university city, there's obviously some multi-culturalism among the students (not much though!)
However, locally, it's very "white working class." At Christmas an ex came up to visit. He's 6 foot 4 and mixed race and attracted a LOT of looks. What pissed me off is the widely accepted casual racism that seems embedded all over the place here. Not even deliberately provocative comments or jokes, just a deep-set view of foreigners/"blacks" etc.

sjupes Fri 22-Mar-13 17:46:52

My local area is pretty much all white it's only closer to the city centre you get more diverse really there are areas that are almost all polish, indian etc.

Doesn't make any bones to me people are just people to me.

i'm in a large city in Canada - doesn't come much more diverse than that.

sjupes Fri 22-Mar-13 17:52:47

Oh yeah - I'm in a large ish city in scotlands north east smile

Roseformeplease Fri 22-Mar-13 17:54:29

Very, we have a mix of white people from places as diverse as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Yorkshire.

<Am joking. The Scottish Highlands must be one of the least diverse places on earth. All Christian / Atheist. All White. Nearly all British.

Iheartcows Fri 22-Mar-13 17:57:55

Live in a conservative, rural town with very little diversity.

We had to have a security guard for a short while in the shop where I worked. They hired one from a company in Birmingham, I got chatting to him and he says that 2 other (black) security guards had turned down the job as they had heard that my town was really racist sad
I was really upset that that's how my town is seen by others.

However it's getting better, I now have Polish and Lithuanian neighbours and a mixed heritage family have moved in round the corner. The mum is from Malawi, the dad's Irish.
For a long time the only non-white people you'd see were Chinese or Indian and running restaurants or takeaways but now more and more people are moving here.
The man who owns my local chippy has recently moved from Wolverhampton and says he loves it here and feels very welcome as the town is so friendly smile

OddBoots Fri 22-Mar-13 18:00:43

I couldn't list the countries but there are well over 30 mother tongues at my DC's schools.

austenozzy Fri 22-Mar-13 18:01:48

I grew up in inner south London, and it's about as diverse as you can get! But I (like KitCat26 above) now live in a village in rural west suffolk, and according to the census is something like 95+ % white British.

DuchessofMalfi Fri 22-Mar-13 18:02:32

Hardly at all. We live in rural Dorset. I also came from a town that was very multicultural, and quite miss that diversity.

DadOnIce Fri 22-Mar-13 18:02:59

Small village near a big city in the Midlands. - not multicultural at all, even though our city is overall. Our area is about 97% white. There are parts of suburbs of the city which are getting on for 100% Asian. Even though the overall non-white population of the UK is about 10%, it's never going to be possible to live somewhere which has that precise balance. This is often missed - what people describe as "multiculturalism" isn't at all, especially in big cities like Birmingham and Leeds/Bradford, which almost become "ghettoised" (sorry for that word, I'm not entirely happy with it but it says what I'm trying to say).

fussychica Fri 22-Mar-13 18:04:12

Not very. Small town SW UK.

Occasionally see a non white face but we do have a Polish shop so there must be a fair number of Poles here but of course as a white person their ethnicity isn't obvious to me unless I hear them in conversion/converse with them.

When we lived in Spain we were the immigrants. Where we lived they really didn't like anyone non white. Many are very racist, as can be seen from the problems within football.

KobayashiMaru Fri 22-Mar-13 18:05:32

Very, for a small village in the back arse of nowhere. I can think of at least 15 nationalities and its a tiny place

Mamf74 Fri 22-Mar-13 18:18:12

I live in SE London, in the primary school down the road there are 76 languages spoken and it's not unusual to be the only native English speaker on the bus.

Despite being (historically) very white working class everyone seems to rub along together, the only obvious racism I've seen has been between an Asian lady and an African lady although I have no doubt the old, lazy racism exists behind the scenes. The BNP hasn't any presence here unlike other areas but I expect UKIP will win here as it's Tory at the minute.

I like it though, left a very smug Middle Class area to move here and find this area is friendlier and seemingly more community minded, everyone says hello and looks out for each other compared to our last area. It's not perfect by any stretch but there is an air of tolerance which is great.

Just don't mention football teams!

Fanjounchained Fri 22-Mar-13 18:18:57

I'm in the East End of Glasgow...100% white on the estate where we live. The only non-white faces I see near us are in the local corner shops and a few big issue sellers. I had to travel to the South side of the city during the week and was struck by how many Asian people there were, really quite a marked difference considering I was just 15 mins along the motorway.

I was also in a soft play area in the city centre last week and out of around 9 couples sitting in one area we were the only native English speakers. Everyone else was Polish ! Doesn't bother me in the slightest but I was suprised.

Mirage Fri 22-Mar-13 18:39:22

Tiny village of about 40 houses,there are non white families here,I don't know what 'nationalities' they are as I haven't asked.They are people like everyone else and treated just the same as everyone else.I know one family moved here from Brighton if that counts and,my immediate neighbours are German and Welsh.

Black G.I's were stationed here during the war,and made very welcome.A few local farming families had African American fathers or grandfathers,so mixed race families are no big deal around here.

Well. There's us and one other mixed race family, I think, and then pretty much everyone else in any given household in the entire village is white.

Nobody gives a shit. Which is as it should be.

Not at all, I live in a small Scottish town, though I'm English.

Weirdly, I can get really obscure Asian ingredients for cooking (Candlenuts anyone?), because one of the Chinese families own a general shop with a shelp[ of Asian ingredients.
I can also get Brindisa goods from the deli, and gorgeous Italian pasta.
It's considered quite a posh town, but I don't live in the posh part of it.

(Helensburgh if anyone is interested)

Hesterton Fri 22-Mar-13 18:46:19

We have over 70 home languages at school. Forgive me for not listing them all!

SquinkieBunnies Fri 22-Mar-13 18:48:08

Rural town here, back of beyond, redneck heaven.
In order of numbers.
White
Hispanic
then pretty even numbers of Black, Asian and Native Americans

KurriKurri Fri 22-Mar-13 18:53:10

I live in a tiny Norfolk Village - here multi cultural refers to people from Suffolk! grin

Off the top of my head I can think of one family where the dad is originally from Singapore
Two families where one of the partners is Polish
An Australian has just started teaching at the school, but she doesn't live in the village.

and um..... that's it really. My DH is from Scotland as is the chap who lives over the road and his wife, if that counts ( I suspect it doesn't though)

However my Dh's workplace in the city is very multi cultural, people from all over the world - too many places to list.

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